I think it is also the first time in quite awhile that no number one seeds made the final four. Nothing is ever certainin this game. Tough luck for the favorites. Good luck to those still standing - at this point predictions would be silly.

#1 UMass Dartmouth (31-2) avenged one of its regular-season losses with a 73-62 victory over #16 Louisiana. The game was a tossup through the first 29 minutes before UMD went on an 8-0 run to finally open some daylight on the scoreboard. Louisiana never got closer than five points during the final nine minutes of action. Richard Ross continues to be a beast with 27 points for UMD. Gerald Mahar added 13 points and 10 boards.

#6 Ursinus (29-4) scored 26 points off turnovers on the way to a 64-52 victory over #12 CSU Eastbay. The story of this game was Eastbay failing to register a point from the 10:12 mark until the 3:07 mark of the second half. During that time a 43-42 Eastbay lead transformed into a 60-43 Ursinus advantage that was entirely too much to battle back from in the time remaining. The national semifinal game with UMass Dartmouth will be a rematch of a 67-57 Ursinus loss back in the non-conference season.

#11 Rivier (20-12) affirmed the saying that its difficult to beat the same team three times duirng a season by knocking off S. Vermont by a 64-56 final count in an all-GNE regional championship contest. It was the first time this national championship tournament that an opponent struck for more than 50 points against Rivier, which forced 18 turnovers in the contest and held S. Vermont to just 21 first-half points. Leon Trott had 12 points off the bench for the victors, who weren't able to reach the Final Four of the GNE tournament, but now sit there on a national stage.

#2 Penn St. Altoona (29-4) outscored Hardin-Simmons 16-5 over one stretch of the second half to turn the tied. The run left PSA ahead 58-50 with 7:17 to play. Hardin-Simmons never got closer than six points from there on. PSA shot 49 percent in the contest. Like Rivier, PSA has been doing it with defense this postseason. The 60 points allowed were the most scored by a national tournament opponent. So, yes, I'll be taking the under when the two meet in the Final Four.

Posted by brianxavier on 1/21/2013 11:18:00 AM (view original):In PT news, there is an all GNE (evil empire) final featuring rednu and disasteruss. Good luck!

Should be a fun one, too. Our two regular-season games were each two-point affairs. I survived a shot attempt to tie in the first one to get the W and he drilled a bucket with like 4 seconds left for the win in the rematch. We don't play the best basketball in Rupp, but we put on a pretty good show.

congrats to rednu on the PT championship --- it's always nice to win a tournament, even if it's not the main event.

Ursinus meanwhile is reminding everyone why he's atop the all-time NT wins in D3 Rupp. He avenged one regular season loss against UMass last night. He gets the opportunity to avenge another regular season loss tonight.

His team has improved 44 points this season vs. 38 by Penn St. Altoona. If you throw out the durability and WE improvments there is still the same gap (both improved 7 points on WE+Dur).... PSA has one more senior (but only 4 upperclassmen) than Ursinus, and PSA won the regular season match-up at Ursinus by 9 points (70-61).

Ironically, they played the first game of the season against each other, and now play the final game against each other. PSA looks to have a IQ advantage and runs Motion/Press, while Ursinus runs Motion/M2M.

Both coaches have reached out to zeuspole, since he went a combined 4-0 versus both teams this season.

Ursinus (30-4) avenged a regular-season defeat and beat UMass Dartmouth at its own game last night, holding UMD to less than 33 percent shooting and forcing 18 turnovers. The most damaging moments came in the second half as Ursinus held UMD scoreless for 5:47, during which time they reeled off 15 consecutive points to grab a 51-35 lead. UMD never recovered from that haymaker to get closer than 14 points. Ursinus, which had lost to UMD by 10 in the regular season, is now in the championship game as a 7 seed. Coach barjaz is going for his third national championship at the school and looking to win his first national title in 15 Rupp seasons.

As expected, two schools that had relied heavily on defense to reach the Final Four produced a low-scoring contest as Penn St. Altoona (30-4) topped Rivier by a 55-45 final count. The story of the game actually came in the first half. Rivier jumped in front early and was threatening to run away with matters, leading 21-9 at the midway point of the first half. Unfortunately for the GNE's last representative, its basket with 9:18 left was its last before intermission. Penn St. Altoona locked down in a big way, holding Rivier to a single free throw for the rest of the half and storming back to carry a 28-24 lead into the locker room. The second half was a series of runs by PSA to stretch that lead to 8-10 points, followed by surges from Rivier to trim the gap back to 3-4 points before PSA would push out to its next lead. Coach frankgrimes1 goes for his second national title at PSA, his first coming in an undefeated Season 57. PSA knocked off Ursinus 70-61 on opening night of the year.

Ursinus (31-4) and Penn St. Altoona looked to be heading for a whale of a finish as the game was deadlocked with just over nine minutes to play, but at that stage Ursinus scored 18 of the next 22 points, opening up a huge lead from which PSA could not recover. The final score -- Ursinus 64, Peen St. Altoona 55. After living throughout the national tournament on the strength of its defense, PSA was done in by a superior defensive effort. Ursinus held PSA to 36 percent shooting and outscored PSA 23-8 in points off turnovers, despite committing two more than their opponents. Richard Salter had 18 points to lead Ursinus, the 7-seed, to coach barjaz's third national championship at the school, but his first in some 15 seasons. Ursinus becomes the highest seeded team to win the Rupp national championship since Eastern Oregon accomplished the feat back in Season 35 as an 8 seed. With 9 of 11 scholarship players due back next season, Ursinus will likely get a good look as a possible repeat contender when Season 64 talk begins.